Adventure! Romance! Mad Science!

Sunday

Jan 23, 2011 at 12:01 AMAug 22, 2012 at 4:56 PM

C. A. Bridges, 24/7

If you have an interest in webcomics, steampunk, alternate history, or just funny stuff, you've probably already heard of Phil and Kaja Foglio's amazing "Girl Genius" series. But did you know there was a novel?

In this Victorian-era setting, the Industrial Revolution erupted into open warfare as mad scientists known as "Sparks" rose to power, battling each other and everyone else around for supremacy, and because they tend to get bored easily. To possess the "spark" is to be capable of amazing powers of focus, unbelievable engineering skill and powerful charisma. Sparks can seemingly create anything they can think of; unfortunately, Sparks aren't always the most rational people. Imagine petty European nobles with money, unlimited power and armies of flying clockwork robots with death-laser toenails, and you get the idea. Families of Sparks create dynasties, exist warily with each other, terrorize their populace, idly build devices to move planets out of their orbits or make really good pancakes (or both), and watch out for new Sparks to emerge as potential allies to co-opt or enemies who must be destroyed, possibly along with their hometown and two surrounding ones, for emphasis.

There were some popular Sparks, namely the Heterodyne Boys, known far and wide for their heroism and adventures, but they disappeared long ago and quickly sank into legend. Someday, the downtrodden dream, they will return.

"Girl Genius" tells the story of Agatha Clay. She is an orphan, raised by her stepparents in Beetlesburg, where she attends Transylvania Polygnostic University as a pretty but spectacularly untalented student due to her clumsiness and frequent migraines which prevent her from building anything that actually works. All she has of her parents is a locket containing their pictures, which her long-gone uncle gave her as a child with strict instructions to never remove.

And then one day her locket was stolen, the iron-fisted Baron Wulfenbach took over the university, and suddenly Agatha was building massive and complicated robotic devices ("clanks) in her sleep. Agatha is a Spark, and a powerful one, in a world where Sparks are beloved and feared and where she has no family to protect her. Now she's on the run from the Baron and his army of Jägermonsters, with no idea how to harness her newly-discovered abilities.

On her side is an intelligent talking cat, a small army of tiny clanks she built without realizing, the Baron's son Gilgamesh (another powerful Spark but one with, apparently, a bit of common sense and a strong attraction to Agatha) and assorted colorful allies such as an oddly talented traveling circus and the occasionally useful, mostly annoying Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer and Hero who sees her as a potential sidekick to his own ongoing, bombastic narrative.

"Girl Genius" has won numerous awards, including two Hugos, as an outstanding webcomic thanks to a richly developed world, a strong female protagonist, hideously detailed artwork, and an engaging story that Kaja Foglio has termed a "Gaslamp Fantasy" because "steampunk" was too limiting. Yes, they have steam-powered clanks, but there are also Frankensteinish "constructs," bio-engineered animals and much, much more.

The comic is free, published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with print collections for sale. But now there's also a novelization of the first three volumes of the comic, called "Agatha H and the Airship City." It's the same story but with more detail and a more description of some of the backstory hinted at in the comic.

Is it as good as the comic? Nope. But that's an awfully high bar to reach. Phil Foglio's art is as much a part of the story as the writing, colorful and detailed and filled with sight gags and in-jokes and Easter eggs for delighted readers to puzzle out, and the story just isn't the same without it. But that means "Agatha H" is condemned to being only a really good book, and we'll just have to struggle along with that.

I loved the return to Europa and Agatha's early life, the storytelling was solid (around the occasionally jarring infodumps of context and history), the humor carries over nicely, and the descriptions of the hilarious and brutally efficient Jägermonsters were almost as good as seeing them in action. Swashbuckling! Slaver wasps! Bizarre inventions! Zeppelins! Stuffed animals! Bad German accents!

I don't know if I would suggest this as your "Girl Genius" entry point unless you flat-out don't read webcomics, but GG fans should definitely pick this up as a worthy addition to the tale.

"Agatha H and the Airship City." Hardcover, 264 pages, Night Shade Books, available from Amazon and other book retailers.

On the Web:

- GirlGeniusOnline.com

- GirlGeniusBooks.com

-----

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.